Men’s Volleyball rallies to collect first victory over King

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Despite surrendering the initial set, the Catawba College men's volleyball team bagged the next three stanzas to record the program's first win at King University, 3-1, on Wednesday evening.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba (1-1) found paydirt early and often, bearing a .243 hitting percentage with 62 kills while King (0-1) logged a .155 mark with 36 darts

- Though the visitors dropped in six aces against King's two, the Tornado committed fewer service errors at a 23-10 margin

- The Catawba Indians forced six reception errors while holding the hosts to a .919 success rate, an inferior clip to the blue and white's robust .975 reception percentage

- King slightly led in the block count, 12.5-11.5, but trailed in the digs category by a 41-34 margin

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Trevor Phillips headlined the Catawba Indians with 23 kills, the nation's best individual mark in the young season, while hitting .415 with three aces

- Hitting an efficient .467 with 10 kills, Jacob Brown supplied four total blocks including two solos

- Cam Reeder also tallied double-figure kills at 11 blasts and made three assisted stops at the net

- Kristian Smith dished out 51 assists in addition to recording four kills, eight digs, and four block assists

- Eli Zdonek stuffed the stat sheet with eight kills, 10 digs, and four blocks (two solo) as he split the team's top dig total with Max Adkisson, who also chipped in five assists

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- King claimed points on each of the first three rallies, eventually notching the contest's first kill from Bryce Pickett to make it 4-1

- Catawba surged ahead with an 8-3 run thanks to a pair of kills and three consecutive aces by Phillips

- Big blocks from the Tornado helped even the score and pull into the driver's seat as Catawba used two Reeder kills and one from Smith to remain in striking distance

- Reeder hammered a kill coming out of a Catawba timeout on set point and Smith followed with an ace, but Sean Haberthy delivered the final blow for a 25-23 decision

Second Set

- A highly-contested start to the frame featured two blasts by Reeder and a couple of blocks including Wyatt Eastin

- After failing to string multiple points together, Catawba climbed from being down 15-13 to even as Zdonek tallied a kill and Brown landed an ace

- Moments later, the blue and white chalked up four points in a row as Phillips, Eastin, and Zdonek drilled kills to force a King timeout

- The Tornado fought to knot the ledger at 21-21, but Phillips and Brown added two kills apiece to end it 25-23 again, this time favoring Catawba

Third Set

- The visitors vaulted to an early 9-4 advantage courtesy of three Phillips kills and four Tornado miscues

- Brown kept the train rolling with a pair of successful spikes followed by assisted and solo blocks by Zdonek

- An eight-point King deficit got sliced down to five at 19-14, spurring a Catawba timeout that successfully reset the squad

- Phillips inflicted the killshot, his eighth dart of the set, to close out the 25-19 stanza and reach the doorstep of victory

Fourth Set

- King exploited Catawba errors to jump ahead 8-4 as Colton Bueter generated a kill and an ace in the hot start

- Zdonek helped key an offensive surge that reduced the gap to 15-13 using the Greenville, S.C. native's trio of kills

- The squads remained separated by 2-3 points until Catawba pounced, Phillips tying it at 20-all before Eastin and Smith teamed up to make a stop

- Eastin and Phillips tacked on one more kill apiece in the last stretch as consecutive attack errors committed by King locked up the set and match for the visitors, recording an historical moment for Catawba faithful

UP NEXT

The Catawba Indians host Belmont Abbey on Wednesday, Jan. 15 for the program's home opener. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at Goodman Arena.